Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Mar;27(3):487-496.
doi: 10.1007/s10995-022-03517-z. Epub 2023 Jan 2.

Very-low-birth-weight infant short-term post-discharge outcomes: A retrospective study of specialized compared to standard care

Karen Lasby  1 , Tammy Sherrow  2 , Tanis Fenton  3 , Jacqueline Jackson  4 , Edmond N Kelly  5 , Victoria Stagg  6 , Deborah A McNeil  7
Affiliations

Very-low-birth-weight infant short-term post-discharge outcomes: A retrospective study of specialized compared to standard care

Karen Lasby et al. Matern Child Health J. 2023 Mar.

Abstract

Objective: Ongoing health care challenges, low breast milk intake, and the need for rehospitalization are common during the first year of life after hospital discharge for very low birth weight (VLBW) infants. This retrospective cohort study examined breast milk intake, growth, emergency department (ED) visits, and non-surgical rehospitalizations for VLBW infants who received specialized post-discharge follow-up in western Canada, compared to VLBW infants who received standard follow-up in central Canada.

Design: Data were collected from two neonatal follow-up programs for VLBW babies (n = 150 specialized-care; n = 205 standard-care). Logistic regression was used to examine odds of breast milk intake and generalized estimating equations were used for odds of growth, ED visits and non-surgical rehospitalization by site.

Results: Specialized-care was associated with enhanced breast milk intake duration; the odds of receiving breastmilk at 4 months in the specialized-care cohort was 6 times that in the standard-care cohort. The specialized-care cohort had significantly more ED visits and rehospitalizations. However, for infants with oxygen use beyond 36 weeks compared to those with no oxygen use, the standard-care cohort had over 7 times the odds of rehospitalization where as the specialized-care cohort with no increased odds of rehospitalization.

Conclusion: Specialized neonatal nursing follow-up was associated with continued breastmilk intake beyond discharge. Infants in the specialized-care cohort used the ED and were hospitalized more often than the standard-care cohort with the exception of infants with long term oxygen needs.

Keywords: Breastfeeding.; Community health; NICU discharge; Neonatal follow-up; Post-discharge care.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Aloysius, A., Kharusi, M., Winter, R., Platonos, K., Banerjee, J., & Deierl, A. (2018). Support for families beyond discharge from the NICU. Journal of Neonatal Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnn.2017.11.013 - DOI
    1. Bapat, R., McClead, R., Shepherd, E., Ryshen, G., & Bartman, T. (2016). Challenges, successes and opportunities for reducing readmissions in a referral-based children’s hospital NICU. Journal of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine. https://doi.org/10.3233/NPM-161624 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Belfort, M. B., Anderson, P. J., Nowak, V. A., Lee, K. J., Molesworth, C., Thompson, D. K., Doyle, L. W., & Inder, T. E. (2016). Breast milk feeding, brain development, and neurocognitive outcomes: A 7-year longitudinal study in infants born at less than 30 weeks’ gestation. Journal of Pediatrics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2016.06.045 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Briere, C. E., Mcgrath, J., Cong, X., & Cusson, R. (2014). An integrative review of factors that influence breastfeeding duration for premature infants after NICU hospitalization. In JOGNN - Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1111/1552-6909.12297
    1. Brooten, D., Kumar, S., Brown, L. P., Butts, P., Finkler, S. A., Bakewell-Sachs, S., Gibbons, A., & Delivoria-Papadopoulos, M. (1986). A randomized clinical trial of early hospital discharge and home follow-up of very-low-birth-weight infants. New England Journal of Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJM198610093151505 - DOI - PubMed